Departing Liberal leader Bob Rae took on thankless job with gusto.
by Robin Sears
The only job worse than interim leader in politics is being Caucus whip in a caucus that has just been electorally whipped. In the first case, no one is much interested in what you ask them to do. In the second, no one cares what you tell them they must do.
The interim leader is seen as irrelevant by other leaders, drumming their fingers impatiently waiting for the "real" leader to arrive, sneering at the placeholder. Your caucus colleagues treat you with the deference high school students accord the substitute teacher, knowing there are no rewards to be had from you, nor any meaningful discipline you can deliver, to boot.
You go through the motions wondering why you agreed to the thankless task, and counting the days until it’s done. Unless you’re Bob Rae.
Objective as I ain’t, I cannot say how impressed I was every time I saw Bob get up to lace the Conservatives one more time, cheerfully endure the baiting of the Ottawa Press Gallery, and then head off to do one more church basement half-full of jaded and anxious party activists.
He’s bequeathed Justin Trudeau the gift of a party anxious to start rebuilding, not the embittered infighting hulk he might have inherited.
If you didn’t know, you’d think he was one week away from an election campaign as he whaled away at the Tories until his final Question Period this week. His role in keeping the caucus and the party from sliding into its usual post-election sniping and backbiting is known only to a few insiders. Like the dog that didn’t bark, the importance of what he prevented is unnoticed – except to those veterans who remember how much worse it has been and might well have been again.
He could have been forgiven for "phoning it in" following his painful decision not to seek the permanent leadership role. He didn’t. He rallied himself and his Caucus one more time. He kept his cool when Mulcair was anointed by the Gallery as the Chief Harper baiter one day after his selection, and beat both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister on many days in the slash and slashback of Ottawa political life.
He made time for young Liberals looking for a way in to the party, cheered up older Liberals looking for a way out , and for the hundreds of activists across Canada still reeling from a succession of defeats, he was a steadying hand. Like Interim Leader Bill Graham before him, he left the party in far better shape than he found it.
He’s bequeathed Justin Trudeau the gift of a party anxious to start rebuilding, not the embittered infighting hulk he might have inherited.
For those too easily dismissive of political motive, cynical about the sacrifice to health, family and sanity that political leadership inflicts, you would look long and hard to find a better model of commitment above and beyond the call of duty than Bob Rae, Interim Leader, Liberal Party of Canada.
About Robin Sears
Robin Sears has served clients on three continents as a management, executive search and public affairs consultant. As a strategic advisor to governments, corporations and the NGO sector in Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States he has led teams on large public advocacy, M&A, technology, and market development projects. He joins Earnscliffe in Ottawa.
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